Here at Exhaust-Notes.com we spend so much time cataloguing the vast array of exhaust upgrades available for your bike that you would be forgiven for thinking that every standard exhaust is ugly, evil, power-sapping or just plain evil. And in the vast majority of cases you’d be right, but on rare occasions the manufacturers get it right straight off the factory floor.
The bikes listed below represent the exception rather than the rule. Bikes where the standard exhaust isn’t the embarrassment they usually are. Bikes where some design and engineering thought actually went into this vital piece where so often it is absent. Agree or disagree with our selection? Let us know.
5) Aprilia Moto 6.5
Designed by Phillip Starcke, a man more typically associated with designing hotels and kitchenware, the Moto 6.5 was pitched as a ‘designer city bike’ based around a trusted Rotax engine widely used in other models. Taken as a whole the bike proved a tad too eccentric for most bikers but the exhausts demonstrated that pipes need not be ugly protrusions from the end of the bike but could be integrated into the aesthetic whole. Using twin exhausts despite the engine being a single pot meant the gauge of the pipework is considerably reduced running in a smooth curve following the circular lines of the bike. Weird bike, nice pipes.
4) Honda Bros 400
The Honda Bros was launched around the same time as the legendary RC30 primarily aimed at the Japanese market. Both the 400 and 650 Bros have both found favour as grey imports with despatch riders, primarily on account of the V-Twin’s impressive reliability. But despatch riders know a thing or two about bikes and they can’t help but have been wooed by the Pro-Arm single-sided swing-arm, three spoke wheels and short exhaust. I’ve always liked the exhaust on the Bros a) because it’s the first widely seen example of a stubby exhaust (now more likely seen on the MotoGP grid) and b) because the pipework is so neat and sculpted. The configuration of V-twins don’t typically make for tidy pipework, with the manifolds exiting from both the front and rear of the engine, but Honda’s designers earned their money on these. There’s also cast in high-spec metal and last extremely well, though as expected on a standard exhaust the sound is tad weak.
3) Kawasaki Z1000
Kawasaki had a tough act to follow when the decided to revive the Z model to their range in 2005. Zs have always attracted a fanatical following since the late so Kawasaki needed to produce something pretty special to meet expectations. And boy did they deliver. Standard UK bikes came fully locked and loaded with .. count them … 4 exhausts! Now Kawasaki has admitted that the most important factor in the exhaust’s design wasn’t performance but style. Normally that would get my goat but in this instance the few hp you might lose is more than made up for by those glorious pipes. Like four celestial golden organ pipes pointing skyward emitting a deep exhaust note to warm the soul. Bravo Kawasaki.
2) Ducati 916
Designed by Massimo Tamburini the Ducati 916 is a sublime balance between form and function. It is arguably the best looking motorcycle ever manufactured and was the first production sports bike to feature underseat exhausts. Though such systems are commonplace now when Tamburini conceived them he was working against the tide of established bike design principles. We have yet to see a bike with such clean lines as the 916 and these can largely be attributed to the fact that the exhausts burble happily beneath the seat. The exhaust note is also something to behold on this bike, even with the standard end-cans fitted. At idle Ducati twins can sound a little rough and agricultural, but that’s the personality of the engine talking and you only need tweak that throttle for the somewhat stuttered burble to transform into a vibrant roar.
1) MV Agusta F4
Tamburini’s work wasn’t done in this list with the 916. Giving the motorcycling world a generous five years to recover from the Ducati he was back in 1999 working for MV Agusta and delivering the phenomenal F4. Like the 916 the F4’s exhausts exit underseat. Like the Z1000 it sports 4 pipes, each ultra slim. Unlike either they howl! All over the world school boys were tearing down their 916 posters and replacing them with pin-ups of this beauty. The F4 is a bike it’s a pleasure to sit behind, bathing in the glow of its four afterburners.
